Father Knows Best
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. (Daniel 2:20-22)
Daniel knew a thing or two about difficult seasons, between being a slave and lions’ dinner at different points in his life. And like the rest of us, I’m sure that Daniel frequently had to remind himself what He had been brought through already and what it had revealed to him of God’s power and control. Like Daniel, it’s important for us to recall the past seasons of difficulty that God has brought us through already. It’s also crucial for us to surround ourselves with brothers and sisters in Christ who have come out of the den and who can be instrumental in helping us remember the power of God in controlling the timing and seasons of our lives. If we let ourselves think that we are the only ones who have ever had a hard season, we will only make it more difficult on ourselves to trust God’s love and control.
When I read this I couldn’t help but think of how lost I would be without Him. I do take comfort in knowing that with each wave that rises only does so by His authority and He sees the beginning and He sees the end of everything I go through. Surround yourself with those who can be instrumental in helping you remember the power of God in controlling the timing and seasons of your life.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Daniel 2:20-22
Walking in Faith
Yes But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? (Matthew 14:30-31)
We have all dreamt of doing something great for God. These dreams might involve some form of sacrifice or great leap of faith. We see others around us who have sold everything to follow Jesus as a missionary in some far corner of the world and view them as a person of great faith. We maybe even aspire to be like them.
Consider this, if we had been sitting in that boat with Peter, we would have thought he was brimming with faith as he began to climb out of the boat and walk toward Jesus. But suddenly, something even stranger happened and Peter began to sink.That courage and faith he had in Jesus was getting smaller as he saw the wind and the waves getting bigger.
A true measure of a person’s faith then is not just the first step of their faith journey, but the subsequent steps thereafter. We deal with this every time we get excited about something, starting any given project only to stop halfway through because it was much more difficult than anticipated. The same thing happens when we believe Jesus would have us do something. We start doing it and it doesn’t turn out like we thought it would, or the ministry isn’t immediately growing, we begin to sink, losing faith in and sight of Jesus. What we must realize is that if Jesus has called us to make a first step, then he will provide a path for each step toward him after that.
Where is Jesus calling you to walk in faith?
When I read this I felt it needed to be shared because we are all on this journey called life and at times our calling can start to feel a bit difficult and even overwhelming and giving up may seem like the easiest route to take but remember, if Jesus has called you to make a first step, then he will provide a path for each step toward him after that. Don’t give up, keep moving forward. He will catch you if you fall or He will teach you how to fly. Trust Him always!
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Matthew 14:30-31
Spilling Through My Fingers
After I clumsily knocked over my glass on the restaurant counter, the spilled beverage began to cascade over the edge and onto the floor. Out of sheer embarrassment, I tried to catch the waterfall with cupped hands. My efforts were largely unsuccessful; most of my beverage rushed through my fingers. In the end, my upturned palms held little more than a meager tablespoon each, while my feet stood in puddles.
My life feels similar on many days. I find myself scrambling to solve problems, oversee details, and control circumstances. No matter how hard I try, my feeble hands are incapable of managing all the pieces and parts. Something invariably slips through my fingers and pools on the floor at my feet, leaving me feeling overwhelmed. No amount of contorting my hands or squeezing my fingers more tightly together makes me able to handle it all.
Yet God can. Isaiah tells us that God can measure the globe’s waters—all the oceans and rivers and rain—in the hollow of His hands (40:12). Only His hands are large enough to hold them all. We needn’t try to hold more than the tablespoon He’s designed our hands to carry. When we feel overwhelmed, we can entrust our cares and concerns into His capable hands.
Help me, Lord, to stop trying to hold everything in my hands, but instead to trust my needs and concerns into Your perfect care. Amen.
When I recently read this I felt it was fitting for this day, Monday, for many it’s the beginning of another work week and despite what kind of weeks past or weekend you may have had, when we feel overwhelmed we can entrust our cares and concerns into His capable hands. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Your source of strength comes from above, look up!
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Isaiah 40:9-17
How Should I Answer The Fears of My Own Heart?
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)
This has always been one of the hardest things for my heart to process. Mentally, I know that God loves me and that He isn’t out to get me, but I still fear the bad things that He may allow to happen to me in this broken world. I am still a work in process, slowly being perfected in the love of Jesus. But in the meantime, how should I, and others like me who struggle with fear, answer the fears of my own heart and the doubt in God’s perfect love that causes those fears?
First, we ought to remind ourselves that God is powerful and loving. God’s power goes beyond our comprehension of power and His love is beyond our understanding. This means that what God allows in our lives, even that which we fear most, is only allowed because He loves us and wants the ultimate best for us.
Second, we ought to remember that God is no stranger to fear or to painful situations. Jesus experienced mass alienation by His community, was betrayed by His closest friends, abused by society and the government and ultimately killed in a horrific and painful way. He begged the Father to remove the burden of the cross from His shoulders. He knew fear and anxiety. He understands when we feel those same things. We do not follow an unsympathetic, uncaring God. We follow a God who has wept bitterly and who has promised to one day wipe every single tear from our eye.
Some of us fear things that may never come to pass and we can become paralyzed by our fears and anxiety. And walking through this process mentally and emotionally can be difficult, especially when we have to do it time and again. But we have been called to pick up the cross and follow Him. Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” We can feel fear and yet move on in spite of it, trusting that someday, we will be forever united with Christ in a place where fear cannot exist and where we are finally and fully made perfect and fearless in the love of Jesus.
I recently read this and incase there are those out there dealing with fear, my prayer is that this strengthens you in some way and gives you hope. Today let’s triumph over fear and set whatever it is aside and remind ourselves that no matter what happens in this life, we win! Live for Christ every day and one day fear will not exist. Wow! I am looking forward to that day.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is 1 John 4
Faint or Faith
If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. (Proverbs 24:10)
I recently read, Adversity is a mirror. It’s a microscope. It’s the scalpel that opens us up and shows us what’s inside. Adversity, pain, and trials are what shake us.
When things are comfortable, we’re like a tranquil pond. Lilly pads quietly float atop the crystalline water below. Things are good. But then, the rocks of trial come hurdling down. Our water gets stirred up and the silt explodes into an inky cloud. Our once-pure pond is ruined! All of the gunk that’s lain silent is riled up and exposed. Suddenly, we discover facets, depths, and wrinkles in our hearts we’d never known were there. Maybe anger or resentment. Maybe greed or lust. Or any other number of things that come crawling out when the pressure’s on.
In trial, we find out who we really are, what’s really inside of us (Proverbs 17:3). In times like those, we have two choices: faint or faith.
We faint when we’re overwhelmed, when we’ve built the structure of our lives upon the sand. Finances can be shaken and shattered. Health can be gone before we finish crossing the street. Relationships can vanish with the wind—sweet for a moment, bitter the next. The problem is that the junk at the bottom of our pond is often the foundation we’ve built our security upon. But it shifts and shivers and shakes when adversity comes.
We faint when we’ve nothing left to stand on. We faint when our faith has been entrusted in ourselves, our bank accounts, our relationships, our still beating heart—really, our anything… But we learn from Jesus that the wise man built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24-27), and when the storm came, it stood. He weathered the hurricane because he’d entrusted the very foundation of his life, his family, and his hope to the great rock. Jesus is that rock. Our identity, value, and worth are both found and secured in him.
Adversity is painful. It is daunting. It is uncomfortable. But we shouldn’t spend our lives running from it.
Remember, Jesus was made perfect through suffering (Hebrews 2:10). Why should we think it will be any different for us? Should we really want it to be? Press into faith and stand in your days of adversity.
My prayer today is that I stand firm in my faith and not faint when the going gets rough. Faith in action. He is The Way maker. Trust Him!
Have a wonderful day in The Lord
Today’s Reading is Proverbs 24:10
He is Patient
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)
Wow! What truth! When I read this I felt I had to share it with someone else. I needed this today. He’s always speaking right to my hearts cry. What a mighty God we serve. What patience He has, when I think I am being forced to be patient with Him, the reality is that He is being patient with me as I mature in my faith. The Lord is never slow to answer His children. He always answers in perfect timing. Thank You Lord for showing me and reminding me of this truth today. Amen!
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is 2 Peter 3:8-9
Seeing to Tomorrow
For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
I enjoy gazing up at a cloudless blue sky. The sky is a beautiful part of our great Creator’s masterpiece, given for us to enjoy. Imagine how much pilots must love the view. They use several aeronautical terms to describe a perfect sky for flying, but my favorite is, “You can see to tomorrow.”
“Seeing to tomorrow” is beyond our view. Sometimes we even struggle to see or understand what life is throwing at us today. The Bible tells us, “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).
But our limited visibility is not cause for despair. Just the opposite. We trust in the God who sees all of our tomorrows perfectly—and who knows what we need as we face the challenges ahead. The apostle Paul knew this. That’s why Paul encourages us with hopeful words, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).
When we trust God with our day as well as our unseen tomorrows, we don’t need to worry about anything life throws at us. We walk with Him and He knows what is ahead; He is strong enough and wise enough to handle it.
Lord, I know I can trust You for today and tomorrow because You are kind, good, loving, wise, and powerful. Teach me not to worry. Amen.
I cried as I read this today, I got little sleep last night as I wrestled with the unknown in my children’s life and wanting the very best in everything for them. I’m certain you are thinking, what parent doesn’t. As I have said many times before, God never ceases to amaze me and He’s always speaking right to my heart, right to the area I’m struggling with, big or small. I wouldn’t want to imagine my life without Him as the captain. God sees the beginning to the end, it’s my responsibility to trust Him not only in my own life but in my children’s lives. I must pray, fast, read the word and be obedient and allow Him to do the rest. Even in times when I would hope and pray for a different outcome, His thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are my ways His ways. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Allow your faith to be bigger than your fears and watch what God will do.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is 2 Corinthians 5:1-9
Keep Trekking Forward
Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us? (Numbers 16:13)
The Israelites were miraculously brought out of Egypt by God. They had been slaves to the Egyptians and were treated with contempt. In turn, they cry out to God (Exodus 2:23-25), and He hears their cries and rescues them from oppression. God never tells them that it will be an easy journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
On their way through the wilderness, God continually provides for them as only He can. We read though that some of the leaders were getting tired of the wilderness and looked back at their Egyptian slavery through rose colored glasses and saw it as a place of milk and honey, which was what the Promised Land was to be.
We can often be like the Israelites as we are making a life change God has brought us to. This life change could be the stopping of a particular sin, ending a bad relationship, or even attending a new church at which God needs you to help. These changes God has called us to are not easy journeys.
Often times, our experience through the wilderness is the hardest. Like the Israelites, we can choose to look back in the past and see it through rose colored glasses or look toward the land flowing with milk and honey God has for us. As you come to that crossroad, you can look back or keep trekking forward. Remember that there are greener pastures ahead.
Have you been looking back lately?
I choose to continually look forward starting today. After reading this I was reminded of how it’s so easy to become overwhelmed with life but when Christ is your anchor He is faithful who promised. So even in the moments when you are questioning where you came from and where you currently are just remember to keep trekking forward. The only time you should look back is to see how far God has brought you. Be encouraged today, be faithful, He will not fail you.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Deuteronomy 31:8
Seasons of Trial
James wrote, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:2–4).
It is in the season of trial that God’s purposes are often realized, for there the conditions are right for us to grow into spiritual maturity. This growth not only equips us for living, but it also enables us to more accurately reflect Jesus to a world that desperately needs Him.
In the hands of our Father, our trials can achieve His purposes for our good and for His honor. They can shape us into the likeness of His Son.
Father, teach me to trust You for the strength to endure difficulties and the faith to wait for Your good purposes to be accomplished in me. Amen.
Amen and Amen!!! It is in the seasons of trial that God’s purposes are often realized. Wow!! That right there is so powerful, if we would just grasp the truth in that, He and He alone is our strength. He has a purpose for everything we go through, we may not realize the why at the time but He is faithful and true and He doesn’t just allow us to go through trials to watch us struggle but to build purpose out of it and even if we don’t see the purpose in the moment there will come a time when we will realize the why and we will be able to touch many lives because of that season of trial. God is so faithful! Trust Him, even in the midst of your trial.
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is James 1:2-12
God Hears our Prayers
Have a wonderful day in The Lord!
Today’s Reading is Psalm 71:1-12